Colleagues, friends, family and former students of Professor Roland Wilson gathered last Friday to celebrate his life and to inaugurate a bench in his memory. The bench is located outside the Department, surrounded by daisies at this time of year, overlooking the lake and the fountains.

Roland's son and daughter toured the Department and visited one of the research groups which is building on Roland’s intellectual legacy under the leadership of his former PhD student Nasir Rajpoot (now a Professor in the Department). Dr Abhir Bhalerao, also a former student and close colleague of Roland, said a few words about Roland's contribution to our community and his lasting importance to us. Head of Department Professor Yulia Timofeeva cut a ribbon on the bench before we all returned to the common room to share memories and anecdotes.

Although an emotional occasion for many of us, it was very nice to be able to gather together again after the restrictions of the last two years and to remember Roland and his legacy.

We are happy to announce that Dr Dmitry Chistikov has been promoted to Associate Professor from 1 April 2022. Since joining Warwick in 2017, Dmitry has made a significant contribution to the department with his research, teaching, and administrative and supportive roles. Many congratulations to Dmitry for all his achievements!

Dr. Gihan Mudalige at the University of Warwick’s Department of Computer Science have been awarded an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) ExCALIBUR research grant as part of a consortium of researchers including the Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC), universities of Warwick, Newcastle, Cambridge, Southampton and led by Imperial College London.

This 3 year, £2.6M project brings together communities from the UK Turbulence Consortium (UKTC) and the UK Consortium on Turbulent Reacting Flows (UKCRF) to ensure a smooth transition to exascale computing, with the aim to develop transformative techniques for advancing their production simulation software ecosystems dedicated to the study of turbulent flows. It is part of the ExCALIBUR (Exascale Computing ALgorithms and Infrastructures Benefiting UK Research) programme, aimed at delivering the next generation of high-performance simulation software for the highest-priority fields in UK research.

We are very pleased to welcome Alex Dixon, a new Teaching Fellow in our department.

Alex first joined the department in 2013, originally as an undergraduate student, and then as a postgraduate student studying automata theory. He has a keen interest in logic, automata, and functional programming.

We look forward to having him in the team!

From 1 September 2021, the Department will be led by our new Head, Professor Yulia Timofeeva. On this occasion, Professor Lorenzo Frigerio, Vice Provost and Chair of the Faculty, said:

On behalf of the Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine, I would like to express my thanks to Ranko for his outstanding service as HoD. I am delighted to welcome Yulia as new head of Computer Science, and wish her all the best with supporting the continued success of this department!

In further good news, Dr Tanaya Guha and Dr Ramanujan Sridharan have been promoted to Associate Professor, effective from 1 July 2021 and 2 October 2021 (respectively). Many congratulations to them, whose recommendations in particular state:

[Dr Guha has] grown her research group to five PhD students currently, and attracted a portfolio of research grants in her career, including recently a substantial award from Ford. ... In engagement, Dr Guha has been raising the visibility of Warwick in her national and international research communities through her invited talks, leadership in the Association for the Advancement of Affective Computing, programme committee memberships, and conference organisation activities. She has also contributed substantially to the Sutton Trust summer school, a key outreach programme.

and

Dr Sridharan’s high standing in the research community is confirmed by his invited talks at international meetings and leading universities, memberships of the programme committees of prestigious conferences, and his organisation of international research events. ... In teaching, Dr Sridharan has successfully led (jointly and individually) two undergraduate modules. The feedback from students has been generally positive, with many appreciative of Dr Sridharan’s innovative and energetic delivery.

We are happy to announce that Dr Theo Damoulas has been promoted to Professor, effective from 1 August 2021. Quoting from Theo's recommendation,

Since his appointment to Warwick in 2015, Dr Damoulas has steadily and speedily risen to one of the most successful researchers in his two departments of Computer Science and Statistics. ... An impressive characteristic of Dr Damoulas’s expertise is his bridging of fundamentals and applications in these fields, and his ability to collaborate intensively over a wide area spanning several Warwick departments, several groups at the Turing, government bodies and industrial partners. ... Dr Damoulas has been one of the most energetic and most appreciated teachers in the department. ... The teaching achievements of Dr Damoulas extend also beyond Warwick, including his work with NYPD, his mentorships within the Turing PhD enrichment scheme, and his PhD external examining work.

it remains to say many congratulations!